Take steps to ensure safety of students, schools told

Shimla, Sep 11: Taking steps in the wake of recent incident in which a child was murdered in the school toilet in Ryan International School in Delhi, the Shimla district administration today appealed to all government and private schools to take adequate measures to ensure the safety of kids.

Stating that the district administration will be taking up the matter formally with schools, Deputy Commissioner, Shimla, Rohan Chand Thakur said that the school authorities had been requested to ensure police verification of all teaching and non-teaching staff.Different toilets for staff members, senior and junior students and escorting small kids below six years of age to toilets could help in averting any untoward incident.

Installation of CCTV cameras in the school campuses, awareness on child sexual abuse in respect to the POCSO Act with focus on good and bad touch and special counselling of senior students would also play a significant role in minimising such incidents, Thakur pointed out.

With a strength of more than 40-50 students in a class, it is not possible for a teacher to give attention to every child and it becomes difficult to read behavioral changes in adolescents. Therefore, it should be made mandatory that the strength of a particular section does not exceed 30, said Kishore Sharma, a teacher in government school.

Strict vigil should be kept on outsiders entering the school premises and installation of CCTV at specific paces like main gate, toilets, canteen and lobbies would definitely help in keeping a vigil. Besides, it would also help the school administration to notice unusual or aggressive behavior, said another teacher Neelam.